President objects to execution of Saddam minister

The Iraqi president today raised objections to the planned execution of Saddam Hussein’s former defence minister, who is due to be hanged with two other former regime officials for their roles in a massacre of Kurds.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said former Defence Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai deserved to be spared because he had been carrying out orders under threat of death by Saddam and because he had engaged in unofficial contact with the Kurdish community under the ousted regime.